Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells

by Ida B. Wells-Barnett

We have endured much and we believe with patience; we have seen our world broken down, our men made fugitives and wanderers or their youth and strength spent in bondage. We ourselves are daily hindered and oppressed in the race of life; we know that every opportunity for advancement, for peace and happiness will be denied us; that in most sections Christian men and women absolutely refuse not only to live beside us and to eat with us, but also to open their churches to us; we know that our children, no matter with what tenderness they may have been reared, are considered legitimate prey for insult; that our young girls can at any time be thrust into foul and filthy cars and, no matter their needs, be refused food and shelter. We feel deeply the lack of opportunities for culture brought by the Public Libraries, the Concert and Lecture Halls, which are everywhere denied us in the South. We view these things with amazement, but realizing that prejudice can only be eliminated by time and our general progress, we have tried to bear these indignities put upon us by a professedly Christian people with the fortitude and dignity of real Christians. All this we have borne and do bear with more or less patience but in the interest of common humanity, in the interest of justice, for the good name of our country, we solemnly raise our voice against the horrible crimes of lynch law as practiced in the South, and we call upon Christians everywhere to do the same or be branded as sympathi...